Turning Climbing Walls Into A Video Game: Jon Cheng

Meet Jon Cheng, the creator/coder of the interactive climbing game that blew up in Brooklyn Boulders Somerville, featured on Wired.com.

Jon Cheng is originally from Los Angeles, and a friend introduced him to climbing a few years ago. He started climbing at BKB Somerville, and the rest is history…

How did you start coding?Oh man, I’ve flirted with coding since I was a kid doing silly games in BASIC. I eventually minored in computer science in college with the intention of some day building a startup. I didn’t get serious about coding until I had worked for a few years decided that if I wanted to get something off the ground, it was now or never.

How has climbing impacted your life?

Climbing has been great! The idea of constantly working on a problem and improving until you accomplish your goal is really appealing to me. It also really helps with grip strength for my other hobby, brazilian jiu jitsu. I see a lot of parallels in climbing, jiu jitsu and startup work.

What are your biggest projects, on and off the wall?

On the wall, I’d like to get back into bouldering V4s. Off the wall, I’m continuing to build out this game. I’m currently working on a secret project for BKB Somerville’s Savage Games this weekend so stay tuned!

What’s your morning routine?

Ohh, that depends. One weird thing that I do to perk myself awake is that I’ll get on my phone and start redditing. If I do that, I’ll get up and start my day. If I don’t, I’ll stay in bed for 45 minutes.

We’ll be testing out his game at our upcoming FAM party. Look out for more events with Randori!

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Randori: The Gamification of Climbing

Climbing at BKB Somerville, local tech developer Jon Cheng was inspired to integrate his knowledge of coding with his knack for climbing, resulting in an invention unlike anything that exists in either realm.